Colonnade at Fletcher Hills

We have lived at these apartments for three years. In many ways we loved it. Beautiful and quiet. But every year so far rent has gone up by $ 100 for no reason. When we first moved here they had a nice BBQ aria then they removed it when new management came in and said when we went to renew our lease they would be adding a new one soon. This was a year ago and they not only haven’t but we can’t use our grills now either. But they are still telling applicants that one will be there soon. The wiring in the apartments is out dated and the power goes out almost everytime we vacuum or blow dry (and they can’t do anything about it) but these are things we were willing to deal with. But the n they started painting which is great except they post notices on the doors the night before with only 12 hours notice to move your cars and the things off the balcony. We were expecting a part for our carbonic was not running and being that we had to be at work at 730 am we had no time to get a tow. We spoke to management and explained that we didn’t get 24 hour notice and our car was non operating and we couldn’t move it until after 3. They threw plastic over it and painted anyway. The next day it was covered in over spray. It cost us 80 $ to get it off. We complained 2weeks ago about a termite problem in our roof in the kitchen. There are droppings all over the floor every morning. They said they would send someone to inspect. Still waiting in that… Also water is being shut off a few days a week. They found leaking pipes (from the now unusable hot tub) and have to shut off the water randomly to try to fix it. Now I understand that things happen and the might be doing there best to fix it. But what really sent me over the edge today was having my water randomly turned off and going to the office to ask how long it will be off for and the manager writes on a posted note that she is taking to her boss and it will be a while and holds it up for me to read… Really… So I ask her anyway when the water will be back on and she said it is on. I told her that only hot water is working not the cold. She said she will have them turn it on. So I leave and come home assuming it was on. My seven year old goes to wash his hands and screams. The water was scolding and the cold water wasn’t working… The toilets are not working… And there is no notice or anything on the door to let us know. And we pay almost 2000 $ a month. All I can say is thank god our lease is up next month.

I’m writing this review not as a tenant but as a recent applicant. We recently applied and put down the required deposit and were denied but weren’t told why thankfully we applied to a condo and gotten approved days after. After several times of trying to contact this place To find out why the application was denied and to receive our deposit back we didn’t hear back. Mind that we applied in the middle of June and it’s now the middle of August. I have tried several times to call and have also emailed Kiara from the office who doesn’t seem to know very much how this process works. She has told me several times that the accounting department has issued a check but I’ve still yet to see it. I’ve also asked several times in email because they don’t ever answer the phone in the office for a number I can reach someone at. This company is very unprofessional and if your thinking about moving there think again because you might never get ahold of the office when you need something and if you do it will take months for a response! If I could give no star I would.

I lived here for 8 months before I paid $ 2,000 to break my lease. When new management took over it became impossible to reach anyone, get things taken care of or even have a phone call returned. They are solely interested in wow-​ing new people into living there that they have zero respect for those who are in a lease. I could not get proper working toilets (it overflowed once a week… even thought in 8 months they came to look at them 6 times) and when I asked for them to be replaced, I got the boxed answer of that wasn’t their policy. When I gave my notice only then was a regional manager finally calling to address my concerns. The young ladies in the office are rude and dismissive when they are present, but it is more likely that if it is past 3:00pm they will be closed for the day. Their hours are stated open until 6:00pm, but that is extremely uncommon.
For prospective renters they appear professional, willing to accommodate and want you to call Colonnade your home. Reality is that once the ink is dry on your lease, you are a monthly rent collection and have no level of priority. Wanna pay online? it will have a fee. They send you a water/​trash/​sewer bill, but it also has a service fee. Yes you pay a fee for them to give you a bill, no you may not waive the fee, everyone has to pay it as it is a service they provide. They planted new landscaping, yep you guessed it, my water bill went up. Every cost is equally passed on, but decisions are made by management.
You may be given the privilege to live on their property, but thats the issue… it is their apartment you live in. It is not your home.

My family and I have been here at Colonnade since December of 2013. Had I written a review 6 months into our lease, I would have given this place 1 star (no stars if it were possible). The old management, maintenance staff and apartments in general were going downhill fast. Management didn’t care, maintenance never showed up and when they did they acted like we were a burden to their day and our apartment, from day one has been slowly falling apart. in 2 years we have experienced our water shut off nearly every month for 24 hours twice! They’ve since fixed the pluming issue and we haven’t had a water shutdown at all this year. SO MANY SPIDERS!!! I’m sure it’s mostly because of all the bushes, dirt and shrubbery around here but YUCK! We even found a couple centipedes IN THE HOUSE… nightmares for days.
We were in a bind when we moved in, this place was really our only option. Had we looked closer upon the walk through, we would have had a long list of imperfections. All of our appliances are horribly dated, which fortunately for the next tenant, i’m sure will be replaced once we move out. We’ve had our stove stop working twice and after maintenance fixed it, the weight of the stove has completely warped the area around it and the cabinets, i kid you not, are falling apart. We have 3 cabinet doors that, when we opened them, had the screws fall out. The popcorn ceilings really should be taken out, the paint job before we moved in was not done well. We had a baby gate up and just taking it down one day took the paint right off the wall. The walls are super thin, i can hear EVERYTHING going on above us and next door as well. I felt bad when we brought our newborn home. Poor neighbors were probably up all night with me and the screaming baby. Oh man… this place is a dump now, I’ve seen the place that they remodeled just next door and it looks amazing… totally jealous. Having a yard is nice, especially since we have a dog. There are dog bag and trash stations in a few places and there are jerks who let their dogs poop on the ground but it isn’t there very long.
Just and FYI to those thinking of moving here. This is how water works. Its a total rip off and we were pretty irritated to find out it’s done this way. Water company calculates total amount of water used for the entire complex, divides it evenly between how many actual tenants are here, two bedroom places pay more than one bedroom… this is what the water company told me. So if you plan to keep track of water usage for monetary reasons, there’s no point. The people above us have a washer and wash on a daily basis, like i said, the walls are thin, and we pay the same amount for water every month which is between $ 60 – 65 and we do our best to conserve water, you know with CA being in a drought and all.
New management and Maintenance is doing great. You can tell they want to make this place look better and fix everything that was wrong about it before they showed up. I would recommend this place to a friend now, unless the apartment has crappy old appliances and old cupboards and really old shaky ceiling fans (which we have 4 in our place and none of them match lol).
All in all this place is really quiet, people are generally friendly and smile when you walk by, they could use more washers and dryers (7 washers and 8 dryers). I can’t tell you how many times I took all my laundry to have it washed and there weren’t any machines available. If you have the money, you’ll love this place. The new remodeled units are amazing… we moved in at a bad time, but yeah, i’d recommend it here.

Being from another state, it was very difficult to find a home. When there were options, management seemed to not care of helping my roommates and I. Luckily we found Colonnade and the apartments are absolutely nice with plenty of space. Even more luckily, the management team here were just wonderful to say the least! They totally took care of every issue needed to be taken care of and everything was smooth sailing from there.

I’ll start by saying, this place served it’s function only in that it has a roof. Other than that, I can’t say we had a positive experience. The current stand, melodia (or whatever) and Lisa are insanely rude, condescending, and unhelpful. They are immediately defensive if you have a problem, and don’t want to help. I’d say the only good people are the maintenance men, who were always helpful and kind. These apartments are way too expensive and horrendously ugly and cheaply cared for. Carpet is gross, popcorn ceilings are nasty, termites are infesting everywhere, etc. Apartments are terribly dark, not even a ton of lamps helps. The turn off the water for an ENTIRE DAY several times a month because they can’t seem to just figure it out. They try to tell you to use a bathroom and shower at their other complex several blocks away, as if this is an acceptable answer. They do poor maintenance work on the property. Recently they repaved, they didn’t even have them rip up the original pavement, they just laid asphault over it and I tripped and fell in the same pot holes that were there before. The people who live here are trashy. They have no cameras anywhere, so when some loser takes your clothes from the washer and shoves them behind the washer so they can use the washer, there is no retribution. Pool is heated only part of the time, unless you complain. I would not recommend this place to anyone, by any means.

I cannot write this review as a tenant but I can write this review as an approved applicant. I had recently been shopping around for an apartment for my son and I to move into for a long-​term living arrangement (something for 5 or more years). I had always known about the Colonnade apartments and had visited them in the past. I ended up choosing another apartment company then as they offered more amenities for the same price.
Given that I was looking to lower my budget and not spend $ 1800.00 in rent for a 2×2, I decided to visit the complex again. I met Madison, who is the onsite leasing agent. The previous apartment company that I had worked with treated their tenants like they were scum. They lacked professionalism, etiquette, and overall communication skills. But not Madison, she was the exact opposite. Whereas the other management company made me feel horrible about myself, Madison made me feel great! I ended up getting approved for the $ 199.00 deposit and she gave me a «high-​five» and congratulated me.
In every step of the process I felt taken care of, appreciated, and an equal. You might be thinking, «why didn’t she rent from them then?» Well, I wish I could have, but I couldn’t have. Unfortunately, my son requires AC for his asthmatic attacks and I need to be able to control it more with central AC vs. a wall unit. Also, I really need to have a washer/​dryer in unit. As a single mother who works full time, raises my son alone and have other outside charity events that I participate in, I couldn’t figure out how the timing of doing laundry outside of my unit would work out.
I did write Madison this email as a thank you: Hi Madison,
I hope you are well. I just wanted to email you and thank you again for everything that you did and said over the last few days. It has been a challenge to find such wonderful people in the renting industry.
I found that ****** was managed by the same property management company that you are, which excites me to no end! I have already begun the process of moving my application over there and applying for their apartment??? although more money (yea) something I need to deal with for ****** health.
I did, however, spread the word about your professionalism, kindness and honorable customer service to the ****** staff as well as within an email that got sent to their district manager. While I recognize that negative things get spread more frequently than positive things, I wanted to make sure that you knew I appreciated the few days that I got to know you.
Thank you again for everything.“
If you want to be treated like a human– I suggest you look first at this property.

From Texas, my fiancée is a travelling nurse working in San Diego at the moment, so we find ourselves here for likely a total of 6 months or more. We moved here in April. First of all, it’s pretty here, this area is like Austin on PED’s. The apartment is pleasant overall. The first negative that comes to mind is that you can hear your upstairs neighbor too well in general, particularly walking. In terms of the «walking noise» and more barking dogs than I’m accustomed to at an apartment, the noise is more than I care for, but hasn’t been a major issue; interestingly, we ran into a resident one day who told us she was the last person to stay in our apartment, but moved to another apartment within the complex as the guy upstairs from us was too noisy for her.Great.Like I’ve alluded to though, nothing intolerable to this point noise-​wise. I’ve had some interaction with a couple of staff members and they were courteous and/​or helpful. We haven’t had any maintenance needs so far. Parking is close and we have a reserved spot. This is the most «dogcentric» apartment I’ve ever stayed in, which is fine — we have 2 dogs. They allow large dogs (not sure of breed/​weight limitations). The location is pretty good. They have a grocery store and pharmacy/​small shopping center next door and the drive to San Diego is pretty reasonable. There is a gym that can suffice for a cardio workout — they have a stationary bike, treadmill, and what I believe would be considered an elliptical machine. If you’re serious at all about weightlifting, the limited equipment — essentially several machines (not sure of functionality) will NOT suffice. There is a laundry room that is nice. I haven’t used apartment laundry rooms in a while and remember having to deal with just a few machines that required coins. The equipment operates off a card that you charge with money; this may just be a «welcome to the 21^st century thing»; don’t know. Also, there are multiple machines that have always been operable.
The property lawn is well kept and the residents are good about cleaning up after their dogs. There are conveniently placed dogshit bag stations around the property as well.
Damn, this apartment is expensive. Being from another state though, this may well be within the range of normal for this area; I haven’t investigated as it’s being paid for by my fiancée’s employer anyway.

I had lived here for a year between sep 2012 — sep 2013. There’s a lot of positives of living at this community. Friendly staff that will take care of issues in a timely manner. I never had to remind them to take care of a problem. Parking was solid as there was assigned covered and uncovered parking for my roommate and I. There’s designated places to walk your dog and poop bags are provided, but not all of the residents obides and cleans up after their pets, so watch your step. The apartment itself is definitely older, but the appliances still work fine. There is a bit of a spider problem in agreement with previous posts. Not sure what the root of the problem is. I always had a can of bug spray ready for those spiders. The only issue I have with the actual unit is the AC/​heating system. AC was only provided for the living room area and the heating was provided separately in each room through an old school system that seemed to blow out more smoke than heat. I ended up just having to buy a space heater for the chillier nights during winter. For the warmer days in the summer, I had a fan in my room since there was no AC. The laundry facility is OK… there were times when the washers would stop running during mid cycle but that only happened a couple times. Do not plan on getting your deposit back. I had my apartment inspected by the maintenance staff and with a bathroom door that needed repainting, I was told the apartment was still good to go and I would get my deposit back. Welp, in fact, the entire deposit got used for carpet cleaning… hmmm… Overall though, The Colonnade is a good place to live, but there’s definitely better places in more prime locations. I have since relocated and I love where I live.

At first, I planned on getting a 1Bd/​1Ba for 4 months since I needed it for work and they were so nice to offer it. Close to the time of signing paperwork, I found out that the unit was not available anymore because the current tenant failed to move out. Instead, I was pushed to move forward with a 2Bd/​1Ba for a higher price.
El Cajon/​La Mesa was always 10 degrees hotter than in San Diego. The noise along the 125 freeway made it impossible to sleep peacefully. There were spiders everywhere outside and they always seem to make it inside the house even though the windows were mostly closed. Worst of all, they were the dark black spiders!
Then, the last month came…
I had termites falling from the ceilings and flying around my whole unit. All they did was call pest control which sprayed a liquid into the wood, leaving dead termites all over my carpet, bed, sofa, tables etc. Spent 3 hours to just clean it up and still had them falling from the skylight. I had to tarp the whole ceiling in the living room and kitchen up, making it almost UNHEALTHY to live in. And at no point did management ever seem to check the actual ceiling to see if things got better even though I mentioned that there were still termites.
Management: «It takes time for them to die.»
These words were very assuring… NOT. Because they never truly died. They were still crawling around. By the time this happened, I was about 25 days away from the end of my lease. I moved out 20 days later and the tarp was still there with over 300 termites dying, withering, and still crawling.
Management: «I’m so upset! We hire pest control to prevent and treat these problems, but it seems like they haven’t been doing a good job. I’m so sorry!»
These were the only words I got from management. Soon after I moved out, there were no sort of compensation for living in a HELL HOLE. Instead, they took the security deposit to pay for the upcoming balance that they charge onto my account. I got 2 big fat bills: one for the remaining of the water/​sewage and the other for cleaning/​carpet cleaning/​painting.
During the end of my stay at Colonnade, I found out that my employer required me to be permanently relocated to San Diego county. Hence that means I had to extend my lease or determine my new living arrangements. I packed my bags and RAN OUT THE DOOR! Sure, I lied to them saying I had to move back home for a bit, but a little lie doesn’t hurt. After what I experienced, it was safe to say: «I would never ever think about living or recommending Colonnade.»
The quality of these apartment homes are far from what the model pictures depict. Live at your own discretion. It’s not as nice as you think. Everything is painted over… The hinges barely move. My mirrors were never repaired even though they said it would be days after move in. My kitchen floors weren’t even glued down and had big air bubbles underneath. Don’t be surprised when termites fall from the ceiling and fly around your living room.

I moved into my place about a month ago and have to say this is one of the better places I’ve stayed in. I’m in a 2 bedroom place and there’s plenty of room for me and my roommate. It’s quite and I never really encounter traffic on my way to work down south. The staff is really friendly and I guess they are part of the new management that took over a few months ago. Whatever they are doing they should keep it up. I recommend this place to all my friends.

So far i’ve lived here 2 months.
Its fairly quiet and no one has really messed with us or complained about us, which is good.
Its not the dirtiest place ive seen and the apartment is in working order.
Cons:
SO many spiders its ridiculous. Many many people do not pick of up their dog’s shit even tho they provide you with bags. Also it seems they are constantly doing some kinda of repair, which is good, but the dumpster and recycling bins are full all day… gets kinda gross.

So far so good. Just moved in earlier in the week and live it here. Got a two bedroom for the same price as we were paying for a 1 bedroom in UTC area. The management is all new here. The manager is super sweet.

Great place to live in, nice community. Landscape make you feel you are in a country side while you are just beside the 125 and Fletcher. In addition, so many services are beside you such as Vons CVS Starbuck Denny’s J on the Box Taco Bell… so many others.
The leasing office doing great. That was in the begining.
Lately, bad management, bad maintainance, and so many barking dogs.